Korea can be numbered among the countries most active in Christian mission throughout the world. According to the Korean World Mission Association, as of January 2013, there were 25,665 missionaries from Korea serving in 169 countries. In terms of the number of missionaries as a percentage of the population, Korea has now overtaken the USA to become number one in the world. The Kyodan made the decision to send someone to be engaged in evangelistic mission in such a country, and so on Oct. 18, 2011 my commissioning service took place in the Kyodan conference room in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

I have been sent to the Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary (PCTS) of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK), where I am engaged in education, research and administration as a member of the foreign faculty in the Systematic Theology Section. I also continue to serve as a pastor, in cooperation with PCK’s Saemoonan Presbyterian Church, where I am responsible for the Japanese language worship service. The university lies at the foot of Walker Hill on the eastern edge of Seoul, and the church is situated in the center of Seoul in the same area as royal palaces from the Choson [Korean] Era and the Japanese and American embassies.

PCTS has around 3,000 students from undergraduate to doctorate level. It is extremely difficult to be admitted, and it is said that the average student must make four attempts to enter the master of divinity course that is a prerequisite for taking the denomination’s ministerial licensing examination. Whether or not this is a good thing from an earthly point of view, one characteristic of PCTS is that it has many students with excellent grades.

Saemoonan Church, established in 1887 as the first organized Protestant church in Korea, is now very, with a membership of around 13,000 and an average weekly attendance of around 6,000 at Sunday worship. The “main” Sunday worship takes place five times, so including the early morning and evening worship services, there are seven weekly Korean language services. In addition, weekly worship services take place in other languages, such as Chinese, Mongolian, and English. About 50 of us meet to worship in Japanese, around ten percent of whom are Japanese and most of the rest Korean.

Now, what meaning can it possibly have for Japanese Christians to engage in mission in Korea, or in other words, given the situation of Christianity in Japan, how can such a country be sending missionaries to a country like Korea, given its fervor for mission?

There are people who ask why we should undertake mission in Korea, suggesting that the Japanese church should currently be urgently focused on evangelism and mission in Japan. Others say that if Japan is going to send missionaries abroad, it should be to countries other than Korea, of all places.

My own opinion is rather the opposite. In spite of the difficulties we face in evangelizing our home country, churches receiving the Holy Spirit have, from the beginning, sent people out to evangelize the world. I want people to remember that from the beginning, the church has sent missionaries to spread the gospel not only into the local area but also to the far corners of the earth. It is through such action that the sending church becomes even more active.

Japan and Korea share a dark, unhappy past. Before its defeat in 1945, Imperial Japan had colonized Korea and various other Asian countries. There are still a lot of people in Korea, both inside and outside the churches, who experienced the suffering and humiliation of that time. A great difference of opinion can be seen between Japan and Korea’s attitudes to the issues of postwar reparations, the understanding of history, and the so-called “comfort women,” and resolution of these problems still seems a long way off. At present, reconciliation has not been achieved between the two countries.

However, surely it is important that, given these circumstances, a Japanese missionary has been sent to Korea by the Kyodan. Even if the work is very small, the fact that a Japanese Christian is serving Koreans and Korean society through the church and in education must be meaningful. When Korean and Japanese people stand together before God in worship, transcending earthly citizenship and historical conflict, unity in Christ is occurring. What a blessing! Seen from the perspective of the work of God’s Kingdom in the redemption of history, we can indeed say that this is an historic event.

When people receive the Holy Spirit, they engage in mission and evangelism. When the church receives the Holy Spirit, it sends people out into the world to do mission. The Kyodan has sent me to work in mission in Korea as a small Japanese presence. Humanly speaking, the work that I have been given to do would be too heavy to bear, but by continually seeking the help of the Holy Spirit, I wish to continue this work. If my prayer is granted, some day I hope to start a church in Korea with worship in Korean, serving and walking with people both inside and outside the church who are being alienated, in order to live together as the people of God’s kingdom, transcending earthly nationalities. I ask for your prayers to make this hope a reality. (Tr. SN)